


Trial & Error

by Sugar_and_Salt



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, MAMA!Powers, alternative universe, sort of high school setting?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 23:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12023019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sugar_and_Salt/pseuds/Sugar_and_Salt
Summary: Between offices and lone classrooms, a student collapses. His powers? Gone.That's how Sehun knows the trial has begun. And he is determined to ace this final exam.





	Trial & Error

**Author's Note:**

> this story could have used thrice the length it is... and ten times the time!  
> I hope you can still enjoy this <3

The first victim was Junmyeon.

That's how they knew the yearly trial had really started. Every year in September, there was an official announcement on the board, addressing the majors and announcing the start of this year's final practical exam. This year, Sehun could finally be an official part of the challenge. Not that he'd had any impact on the past year's exams, but damn if he hadn't tried, because he was a brat like that.

 

The training for people with special talents usually started as soon as those talents surfaced. For Sehun this meant that he'd lived on these grounds ever since he was ten years old. He'd spent years living in the nearby buildings for people who were either too young or too new to this to control their powers and posed a possible threat. He grew up amongst other kids like himself, amongst a few adults and rowdy teenagers, and he quickly learnt how to pave a way for himself. It helped that his power was pretty deadly, for he had a natural talent for manipulating air. People did not want to mess with him simply for the thrill or dominance.

Sehun stayed there until he was 20 years old, and the moment he packed his meager belongings to move inside the colossus of tinted glass and black metal he had only rarely ever set foot in, he felt triumphant. The headquarters were close to the schools and the campus, and a few lessons were taught there, but it also served as a main center of organization for everything concerning inhuman powers. Which meant that there were a lot of adults in suits walking around the corridors, bustling from one office to the next, phones pressed to their cheeks. Sehun secretly liked being surrounded by adults - it made him feel more relevant.

Two floors were living quarters for majors, people who had an excellent grasp on their powers and were not just capable of living normally, but also saw an opportunity to work with their powers, to take on jobs that relied on them. To do something greater. For Sehun, living with suppressed powers had never been an option. He spent the next three years learning in depth about every field he showed competence in, and now the time had come for him to prove himself.

 

The trial, as the students called it amongst themselves, was different every year. It was rarely obvious to the eye, and thoroughly tested people's capabilities. Rumors said that the people who managed to solve the trial were often hired for dangerous jobs like undercover agents, soldiers or hitmen. Sehun wasn't sure whether he wanted any of these, but his pride definitely wanted him to prove himself. He was determined to unravel the threat and eliminate it.

 

It started when Junmyeon collapsed in the canteen. He got glassy eyed, got all twitchy and strange and caused heads to turn. When he slipped off his chair, the present majors had gone into full panic mode. Yixing immediately knelt by his side and tried to figure out what was wrong about him, only to flinch away like he was burnt. That time, Sehun had been blinded by worry and had quickly carried Junmyeon to the infirmary, where Yixing got a check-up, too. But the way all the people around them hadn't really made a move to help had said it all - this had been part of the trial.

 

Both Yixing and Junmyeon were quickly discharged, and they were fine... but they were left unable to use their powers.

 

* * *

 

 

People were concerned and scared, and the mood was tense amongst the majors.

 

"They wouldn't take our powers away, would they?"

"They'll be back, right?"

"I can feel something being there, but... it feels like everything is wrong, I can't reach out anymore-"

 

Sehun had heard enough of those aimless worries - Junmyeon and Yixing could only repeat the same thing over and over again - that the powers were still sort of there, but out of reach. He left the common room to go to the canteen instead, looking for clues. It was late now, and rather dark except for the low light coming from the lamps far above them. Except for a silent couple of people in suits at a far corner, there was only one person standing in the room, back turned to Sehun. He was still able to identify him easily.

"You're here, too?" Jongdae asked when Sehun leaned against a table next to him, shooting him one of his naturally mischievous-looking smiles. Jongdae was one of the people harbouring a more deadly power, though Sehun knew that his mind might be the greater threat to people. It was easy to overlook the short boy with the kind face and curled smile. But Jongdae had been the first to arrive here, even though he hadn't been present during the incident.

"Did you notice anything to be off during dinner?" Jongdae asked casually, closing his eyes as if to reach out and feel for something. His power was based around electricity, so he had a very different perception of his surroundings than Sehun. To him, electricity was invisible - most things that could be in the air were, except for rough and obvious pollution. Sehun still had a lot to learn in that area.

"Nothing at all," Sehun replied truthfully. "There were a lot of people, and no one stood out as suspicious to me. Not that I was looking as close as I should have."

Jongdae tsked at him halfheartedly before sinking into a chair. Sehun followed. It was their usual table, and everything seemed perfectly normal.

"The tensions all feel natural," Jongdae hummed, nestling his face in his arms. "You think it was something in the food? A virus? A virus that can be manually unleashed? It could also be something that only Junmyeon and Yixing were sensitive to."

"But how would liquid control and healing be related?" Sehun asked, fingers tapping on the table. "The only common factor would be a possible influence on blood, right?"

"Yeah. Seems a little far-fetched," Jongdae replied.

They kept throwing around guesses, but it was obvious that they needed more information. They needed more hints to find a pattern. Which sadly meant that they had to wait until the next victim. Sehun swore to be alert next time, and hoped it wouldn't be him.

 

 

* * *

 

Sehun was suffering from a headache. It was a little concerning since he wasn't the only one. They appeared and disappeared like random specks of light filtering through leafage. Sometimes it would ache for an hour, then it would stop abruptly. Not everyone got them though. Jongdae remained completely unfazed, just like Tao and Chanyeol. Minseok, however, was complaining more and more about the piercing pain in his head. They tried to analyze the pain, but nothing came out of it. They kept coming up with theories of the pain's origin, only to come up blank. It could be something in the food, but the exact same scenario had happened last year - they wouldn't do the same thing two years in a row. People were keen on some sort of gas being in the air, something that would only affect them, but Sehun would surely notice something like that. The air was perfectly clean. Or at least as clean as it could be, relying on their filtering systems.

All the observations taken together they came to the conclusion that whatever it was, it was dependant on a location, seeing as sometimes, people would all suffer from headaches at the same time - but as soon as they changed their location and went outside, everyone would rapidly get better again. That was the reason why Sehun was prowling around much more. While people discussed and meditated, trying to dissect and maybe understand the pain they felt, Sehun kept a close eye on his surroundings. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but _something_ had to be recurring enough to reveal a pattern.

He was walking down a hallway just above their living room quarters where most of the others were currently resting. There were doors left and right, some opened, some closed. A few office workers stalked over the carpet with dulled steps from time to time, but everything seemed in order.

Sehun went for a door without any sign, assuming the room would be empty and a nice place to sit down and focus on his surroundings in. It wasn't empty, though. There was a boy sitting in front of a laptop, looking like he was gesturing at his laptop and flinching as the sudden intruder poked his head in. Sehun had never seen him before. He looked to be around his age, had rather exotic features with generously tanned skin and plush lips that stood out against a cream-colored dress shirt.

"Oh," Sehun said dumbly. The other looked surreal, like he wasn't supposed to be in this bare office at all. "I'm sorry. There was no sign outside, so I thought..."

"It's okay," the other reassured him with a small, almost timid smile. "I don't think I'll deserve a tag anytime soon."

"Are you new?" Sehun asked, keen on keeping the conversation going. The other shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess so. I started around a month ago. I'm from Seoul Center, and the new assistant of Mr. Park."

"Seoul Center?"

Seoul Center was a far away institution similar to the one they were in now. Needless to say, Sehun's curiosity was piqued, enough for him to step into the office, leaving the door just a little ajar.

"That means you have a talent, too?" he inquired, unabashed and blunt as he always was. The other chuckled in self-deprecation.

"Well, it's not really worth mentioning. Do you wanna take a seat or do you prefer hovering in the doorway?" the stranger asked, a shy playfulness dancing along the words. With a shrug, Sehun did take a seat across him, not taking his eyes off the other.

"What is it?" he asked right away, and the other smiled.

"I'm Jongin by the way," he said, offering his hand. "Thanks for asking."

"Sehun," he said with an eyeroll and a smile, shaking his hand. It was warm, the pressure just firm enough, despite his shy appearance.

"And it's not an interesting talent at all. It's super harmless, but at least it got me a job. Not... having this talent but having any talent at all," he explained, and under Sehun's impatient look, he caved.

"Can you sing?"

Sehun blinked.

"Not... really, no."

"Okay, but can you hum a song for me? Any song?" Jongin asked encouragingly. Sehun pouted. He strongly disliked being pushed to sing, for his voice really wasn't anything to write home about, in his opinion. Still, Jongin nodded encouragingly, and Sehun stalked over to pull the office door shut before plopping down in the seat.

"If this turns out to be a joke, you'll regret it," he said petulantly, but took in a deep breath nonetheless. He closed his eyes as he started humming a random song - one that Chanyeol and Baekhyun kept singing obnoxiously, with a simple, catchy hook. A touch on his arm made his voice jump and eyes open again. Jongin gestured to keep going, but his hands were playing on an invisible piano. Sehun tried to focus on humming, eyes glued to the way Jongin's fingers danced through the air, eventually turning from an invisible keyboard to just moving in the air, in perfect sync to the song he was humming. It was very weird, but not in a bad way. Sehun was fascinated.

"I can feel music," Jongin said, and Sehun's tune quickly faded as he focused on listening. "I feel it a bit better than others, and it's almost impossible for me not to express it through my body. Looks a little silly in public, but I tend to wear muting headphones. It's not hard for me to learn instruments, though, as you might imagine."

Sehun nodded, intrigued by the rather specific and harmless talent. He rarely got to meet new people with talents anymore. He was just starting to talk to Jongin about his own power when he heard a thud downstairs, and something felt painfully off.

"I'm sorry, it was nice talking to you, see you around," Sehun muttered in one breath, already halfway to the door. He took two stairs at once and then jumped down the last couple to burst into the hallway just in time to feel everything being _wrong_ \- and then Minseok yelled and everything around the common room froze, Sehun could see the frost spreading. Glass bottles exploded as the content was violently frozen, and Sehun protectively held an arm in front if his face as he burst inside, only to be pushed out again by someone.

"Sehun, no!" Kyungsoo grunted pulling him out by his arm. "Don't get too close-"

"Chanyeol!" Sehun yelled down the hallway, repeating it until a door was opened somewhere down the hall, displaying a messy mop of red hair. "Move your ass over here! Minseok needs you!"

Chanyeol had to bodily press Minseok down and engulf him in heat to stop the disaster from escalating even further. It took awhile until Minseok stopped struggling and groaning in pain. Later, he claimed that his power had slipped from him like it never had before, and that for the first time in his entire life, the cold had felt like an enemy.

Sehun shivered, despite the carpet beneath his palms having dried up ages ago.

  


* * *

 

 

Sehun had felt so close to the solution; he'd felt so sure of everything. During one random conversation, Jongdae had suddenly slammed his palm into the table, yelling that they were all a bunch of idiots. How the clue had been right under their nose all the time - it was not only about locations in general, but also about proximity. Because two people in different places never had headaches at the same time. If they were in the same room, however, multiple people could suffer from headaches simultaneously. That meant that whatever it was wasn’t bound to a certain location, but it had to be close to the potential victim. There was only one victim at a time, meaning that it was likely one single source, too.

"You know what that might mean?" he asked into the round, and Sehun perked up first.

"You're saying it's a person? Someone is doing this and is on the move, just like we are? Is that it?"

Jongdae made an approving gesture, while Kyungsoo shook his head - nowadays, an almost permanent frown was etched into his expression. Sehun could empathize. The headaches were getting worse.

"Who would be capable of that? We know everyone of power in this complex, and no one's talent suits the scenario."

Jongin, the handsome assistant, immediately popped up in Sehun’s head.

"There are," he said, working out his train of thoughts as he went, "I know one person. His talent is unrelated, but there might be more like him. We should ask around. Maybe the perpetrator is hiding in the offices, between all those suits."

"That would make everything so much easier though, wouldn't it?" Jongdae excitedly said. "It would mean someone needs to be close to us, and the next time it happens, we could send Tao to check-"

"Yes!" Sehun agreed right away, and finally, he felt like they were on to something. Tao was the most prized major they had, and was already highly sought after by a lot of people who concealed their identity with a smile when they stopped by to pay them visits during practical training. He had the ability to take a step back from time itself and act outside of its boundaries. As of now, he could only freeze time, and not for long, either. But it would be enough to-

"Tao's out though," Junmyeon crushed their hopes immediately. Sehun and Jongdae groaned in unison.

"Why?"

"I don't know. Some sort of job. You know how busy he is. He wouldn't tell me what it was about, but he's in Tokyo and won't be back for a while."

Jongdae started to whine about how unfair and bad this timing was, while Sehun mentally went through all the other majors who might be of help in this situation. He simply couldn't think of anyone. It would make so much sense if it was a person, though. He should ask Jongin whether he knew of any other people up in the office areas who had talents, no matter how menial. Secretly, he didn't think of it as a chore, talking to Jongin again. The other had been handsome and interesting.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You work on your theories, Minseok and I will finally get through this dungeon," Baekhyun announced, turning on the TV and handing a game pad to a weakly grinning Minseok.

"Really now? Don't you want to at least try and help us with this?" Kyungsoo asked, voice laced with annoyance - not an uncommon occurrence when it was directed at Baekhyun. The latter only shrugged.

"I can't think of anything - being all tense and stressed 24/7 will only make you more vulnerable."

"You're just too lazy to actually do anything, I can't believe you even made it here-"

"I can't hear you," Baekhyun drawled out, purposefully turning up the volume loud enough to add to Sehun's pulsing headache. Kyungsoo shot him a scalding glare. Baekhyun liked to be obnoxious, and Kyungsoo liked to fight him, but Minseok was obviously not feeling well, and a few exchanged glances between the others made them get up to switch to one of their private rooms instead, leaving the two to play some fantasy roleplay, if only to cheer Minseok up a little. It was a good way to test their theory, see if they could escape the possible perpetrator’s reach and maybe finally ease their headaches a bit. The moment they reached the door, Kyungsoo grabbed for the doorframe, missed and tumbled to the floor, retching. Junmyeon fell to his knees beside him, but Sehun only stepped over him to burst into their hallway, frantically looking left and right. Too close, they had to be so close right now - this wasn’t an ordinary headache, this was definitely an attack. There was nobody in sight, so he ripped open the door to the adjacent hallway, ignoring the way people complained about the noise echoing from their common room. He fleetingly noticed how he'd bumped into Jongin, but there was no time for his crush now, and so he ignored the other's hurt look and rushed down the hallway, ripping open doors left and right to look for someone, anyone who was behaving suspiciously. But there was no one. Just familiar faces, just angry expressions and neat suits, and Sehun wanted to scream.

 

* * *

 

 

"Maybe it's one of us."

"What?" Kyungsoo snapped, staring at Chanyeol in pure annoyance. He, too, was still a little weak and wary, and his already small amount of patience was basically non-existent these days. Chanyeol shrugged and crossed his arms from where he sat on the couch.

"I'm just saying," he began, and Sehun rolled his eyes because no good news ever started like that, "that if it's a person close to us with powers and we just can't seem to find them... logically speaking, it could be one of us. The board could have approached them and made a deal with them. Why not?"

"Because," Yixing piped up from another seat, further away from them, "this is sowing distrust among us, which would be the end of us at this point. We'd basically ruin us ourselves, no trial needed."

Chanyeol may have a point, but so did Yixing. Kyungsoo was visiting now, but he had moved back to the campus, feeling too unstable to live among regular people, outside the specifically built dorm rooms. A few days ago, Yifan and Minseok had followed him - Minseok ended up not recovering all that well, while Yifan lost control over his power as well. Sehun was a bit angry about that, actually. Yifan was just a tall, quiet guy who minded his own business and stayed clear of conflicts. He'd never wanted to be part of the trial, he just meant to quietly graduate and get a job unrelated to his knack of manipulating gravity.

They were decreasing with every passing day. Whatever - or rather whoever - was testing them, they were winning. They had to hurry.

Sehun stared at the whiteboard grouping names together. There was the group of attacked people, sorted by the order they were attacked in. There was a list of people with headaches, who were living dangerously and with the prospect of being attacked next. Then there was the list of people who had been completely unaffected from the beginning until now. The last list only showed Jongdae and Luhan at this point - and Tao, followed by a question mark, seeing as he had left them early on. Sehun stared at his own name, a bit hazy from the constant pain in his head. If this was a person doing this, then this might be their way of weakening him, that much was quite obvious. He had to stay focused, but it's been days since his head felt weird, since reality became harder to grasp, like only his brain was drunk. He thought of Jongin. Jongin, with the harmless talent. He shouldn't involve him, but maybe he could help them? Only majors were affected, right? It was uncommon, but sometimes majors used other people's talents to reach their goals. If they took responsibility over their actions, everything was fair.

If only his head didn’t feel so weird, if only the letters would stop blurring in such odd patterns.

"But if we're stuck, we need to address this in a logical way, that's all I'm saying-"

He would not lose control like Minseok did. He would not. His head was all his, he had total control over his power.

"There are so few of us left, Chanyeol? Who do you wanna accuse? Yixing?"

Sehun twitched as he felt something strange. Like a tense muscle loosening without his doing, but in his head. It was happening. Something was digging into his head. And he had to stop it. Stop the person. Frantically he stared at the whiteboard, at the list of names and places. They were all spread out, but the common room was encircled twice.

"Then what do you suggest, huh? What have we been missing?"

Maybe it was all their fault, because of too many majors being too close to each other. Maybe that was the problem. It could be. It really could. No one was ever attacked alone. But that was the thing - this was no slow-building effect. He felt it too intensely right now. It was a deliberate attack, someone had a clear aim, and that was his head.

"I don't fucking know- and Baek, _can you turn that stupid game down, we're trying to talk_ -"

Sehun blinked, temporarily letting go as a realization hit him.

The game, the music, wait-

And then the pain stabbed in deep, using the opening. Sehun yelled, grabbing his head, and he dully heard himself shouting 'No,' a panicked, angry refusal. And then he lashed out in a way he hadn't done since he was a small kid, and the air froze around him, spreading like a wave. Baekhyun's angry reply was choked out, just like the rest of them were.

And the pain stopped.

Sehun was the only one to breathe heavily. For just a second, he stared at his struggling colleagues, his friends. Then he held his breath, jumped to his feet and left the room, trying hard not to lose control over the air he was holding in the area as well as his lungs. With a clear aim, he took the stairs, despite his lungs burning like hell. He hadn't ever needed to sharpen his condition, but as long as he was not dead, neither would his friends be. He burst into an office without a sign and saw Jongin grasping his own throat, looking really red-faced.

The moment Sehun let go of the air, he tackled Jongin down, grabbing his hands and pressing them into the coarse carpet.

"It was you, all along!" he hissed. Jongin coughed violently, unable to utter a single word, but Sehun was too overwhelmed by the way all these pieces actually fit together.

"You get into people's head, but can't do much damage one at a time," he said, while Jongin still spluttered and struggled, "You went for Junmyeon and Yixing first cause they're the most dangerous for you - that's why you've been chewing on me for so long, too!"

"I- I didn't-" Jongin wheezed, but Sehun didn't let him finish.

"You need to be close but you _are_ close, you've always been, because your stupid office is directly above our common room!"

Jongin was shaking his head, eyes clenched shut, but Sehun just kept talking, voice growing in volume.

"You _lied_ to me! You said it's impossible to keep still if you hear music, didn't you? But when you attacked Kyungsoo, there was loud music playing throughout the whole hallway and you didn't seem affected in the least. _Who are you_? You better start talking right now, because I'm not particularly happy about what you did to my friends!"

Jongin kept shaking his head, and Sehun cut his air off in response. Not for long, just long enough to have him gasp seconds after, words tumbling out as soon as they could.

"Stop! I give up, stop- don't kill me, your friends are alright," he wheezed, and Sehun stared at him skeptically, but held off on moving the air.

"I'm- I'll tell you, I give up- you won," Jongin uttered, ceasing to struggle as he looked up at Sehun with teary eyes. "I'll tell you. Don't hurt me. Don't let go of my hands if you don't trust me, but please- give me a chance to talk."

Sehun sat up, still pinning Jongin's hands down by his sides, looking at him expectantly.

"Who are you?"

"Kim Jongin, a major from Seoul center," Jongin replied immediately. "I was transferred to take my trial here."

"Your trial? Why?" Sehun asked, and Jongin swallowed, undoubtedly trying to recover.

"I'm a hacker," he said, sounding a bit throaty still. "I- I hack into people's powers. I can touch and rearrange the structures - they want me to become a spy, so my trial was to take down as many of you as possible without getting caught-"

"So you did take Junmyeon and Yixing out first for a reason," Sehun stated, and Jongin nodded.

"The water-guy could control my blood, and the healer might get a hang of repairing the damage I did. I can slightly influence multiple people at once but only really crack them one at a time. I didn't touch the Chinese one because I didn't understand his powers, and I didn't dare touch the electricity guy - one mishap and people would have been _dead_ -"

"Oh, but having someone possibly freeze our blood is alright?" Sehun barked, and Jongin winced, but looked defiant.

"I could have given the healer his power back, and he would have helped - but I doubt he can revive the dead," he argued, and then turned almost pleading. "I was doing my job, Sehun. It was my own trial."

"And you did a fantastic job, both of you," someone said from the door, causing Sehun to all but jump away from Jongin, who sat up, rubbing his throat and wrists. Two of their main superintendents stood in the doorway, prim and proper as always and looking quite alright with what was going on.

"Did he tell the truth?" Sehun asked immediately, being the brat that he was. The man nodded.

"He did. And you solved the trial this year, Sehun. Congratulations."

"Though Jongin here did a great job, too," the woman added, wearing a small smile that didn't do much to lift her serious expression.

Sehun had always naively expected the trial to be some sort of adventure. He'd expected to feel amazing for solving it. All he felt now, though, was a heavy wave of relief. If that was not an obvious lesson taught, then what would be?

That raised another question.

"What about the others? Did they lose?" he adamantly inquired. "What about Junmyeon and Yixing? They lost their powers early on, so it wasn't fair to them-"

"Don't you worry about that," the man calmly cut him off, and maybe it was that calmness that made the agitated boy listen, "You don't need your powers to _win_ this trial or even do good. You know we monitor you throughout this. In fact, every single one of you have a reason to be proud. People robbed of their power stayed mentally strong and kept the little community together. Those who didn't actively seek a solution, took care of the metaphorically injured ones."

Sehun could only blink like an idiot, instinctively looking to the side, at Jongin, who just seemed glad he was breathing.

"Logical suggestions came up, ethics were protected. Even Kyungsoo, Minseok and Yifan did well by choosing to draw out of this in order to not endanger others. There is no simple winner, for there are many goals to aim at. They told us a lot about you and what kind of place would suit you well."

"What about Jongin?" Sehun suddenly asked, surprising both Jongin and himself. "Did he pass?"

The woman smiled a bit wider at this.

"There you go. _Passing_ instead of _winning_. You're growing fast, Sehun."

"He did, right?" Sehun only asked, and the woman seemed amused by his adamancy.

"Oh yes, he did."

"Really?" Jongin asked as if he couldn't believe his own ears, "Even though I got caught and messed up so much stuff and-"

"You are still a student. You came in here without any sort of training and were left to fend for yourself against 11 empowered people. Please believe me when I'm telling you that your performance excelled in every area."

Jongin exhaled in the most obvious display of relief Sehun had ever seen. The man went back to addressing Sehun.

"Seeing that at the end of the day, you managed to overpower Jongin, you're elected for a very high-ranking job position."

"Like what?" Sehun asked bitterly, "A killer? Because I almost killed him?"

"His partner. Because you were the one able to catch him," the man calmly corrected him. Sehun just stared at him, too stunned to talk for once. Him, the partner of a spy? That sounded like a terribly dangerous job. But he'd have Jongin's back, protect someone. Did he want that?

"You don't have to decide right now, and we understand that you could use some rest," the woman said not unkindly. "We'll leave you to it. Please don't actually attempt to murder each other and see us tomorrow around noon, in my office."

"Yes, Mrs. Park," Jongin muttered obediently, and seeing his ducked head and the man's raised eyebrow, Sehun caved.

"Yes, Mrs. Park," he echoed hollowly. He waited for them to leave and close the door, presumably to meet the other majors, and silence fell upon them.

"So... that just happened," Sehun finally said, glimpsing over at Jongin, who had slid back to lean against a wall. He looked ruffled, exhausted but also like he was running high on adrenaline still. So mostly like Sehun felt right now.

"Yeah," Jongin muttered, and Sehun sat down next to him.

"So... can't help but dance, huh?" Sehun asked, a tinge of genuine hurt mixed with a teasing undertone. Jongin chuckled and rubbed his neck.

"I'm sorry. Stupid lie. I need to move my hands and... actually I'm just a dancer. I improvised to your tune."

Sehun hummed. He stared at the plain office with the grey carpet and white walls. He should have realized that very few people would keep their offices this empty.

"You know..." he began, unsure of whether either of them were ready for his current train of thoughts.

"Hm?" Jongin hummed, lazily looking over at him.

"No more lies," Sehun said. Jongin looked a little sheepish, a little _apologetic_ , genuinely so.

"If we're supposed to be partners, the lies have to go."

Jongin looked surprised, and Sehun was a bit too embarrassed to dwell much more on anything right now, and got to his feet, offering Jongin a hand.

"Are we good?"

Jongin didn't reply, but he nodded and took the hand - only to use the momentum to crowd Sehun into a wall and kiss him, without any warning or preamble. Sehun was bewildered, but a bit too ready to go along with this when Jongin held his nose closed. The lack of air was quickly showing, and no matter how amazing Jongin's lips felt, Sehun could not enjoy any of this with the urge for air. With a last, pretty harsh nip on his bottom lip, Jongin suddenly ripped himself away and left Sehun gasping.

"Now we're good," Jongin said, with a little grin tugging at his lips, eyes shining brightly.

Sehun actually gaped at him. _Brat_. He'd never thought he'd find someone _he_ would call a brat.

"Don't you think I might still be a bit too pissed to let you do that?" he asked, trailing after Jongin, who held the door for him.

"You would have said so if you were, right? No more lies," Jongin remarked, and Sehun made sure to keep up with him to bother him all the way to wherever he was going.

In the back of his head, he thought about how just now, even with his air being cut off, he hadn't even considered using his power to stop Jongin. Peculiar.

But it could be a good kind of peculiar, Sehun thought.


End file.
